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「やさしい事」 (Yasashii Koto)
“Act of Kindness”
Playtime’s over, looks like.
Last week wasn’t just another school adventure of the week, as it turns out – it was actually setting up the chain of events that would seismically shift the ground underneath Ao no Exorcist for good. And can anyone be surprised that it was Mephistopheles that was behind it?
The charade of the training exercise is dispensed with pretty quickly (even allowing for a ridiculously long recap/insert song). By the time the group arrives back at camp both Izumo and Takara (Bunny-kun) have already completed their missions (leaving the mystery of who set off their surrender flares). Izumo simply used her familiars to transport the peg lantern, but as usual we get nothing from Takara – no notion of how he succeeded so quickly. Just scathing words for the others, via his dummy. But really, that part of the story is at best an hors d’oeuvre and at worse an outright red herring.
Mepphy notes at one point during this episode that tails are a major weak point for a demon, and that looks to be true enough. But poor Rin has another weak spot few demons have to deal with, and that’s his heart and what it makes him do. Specifically, his heart when it comes to Shiemi (though to be fair he seems to have always had a soft spot for the weak. Stepfather’s influence.). Shiemi is clearly the weakest member of “Team Rin” and finds herself getting into a spot of bother frequently, and if he proved nothing else Mepphy proved that Rin has absolutely no self-control when it comes to her. So when Amaimon used a demon bug to control her and made some less than gentlemanly advances, he may have got the reaction he wanted but he also got a helluva lot more than he bargained for.
It was a good thing Shura gave Rin his sword back, because Amaaimon was playing hardball. But the reality of the situation became clear quickly enough – while Shura (a seriously powerful Exorcist) was struggling with Amaimon’s dog and the others, including Yukio, were being roughed up and tossed aside, Rin was clearly the better demon than Amaimon once he drew the sword and really let his inner beast escape. He absolutely kicked Amaimon’s ass, even chasing him into the “cuckoo clock” Mepphy tried to hide him in after it was clear he was soundly defeated. Even big brother appeared to be surprised by the extent of Rin’s powers once they were fully unleashed.
Of course things can never be the same now. All of the others have seen Rin’s true form, and that genie can never go back in the bottle. Mepphy and Amaimon have called him “brother” and the true extent of his power is clear. What happens to Rin’s relationship with his friends now, even his brother? Can he possibly go back to school, now that the truth is out there? Bon (who has proved himself to be smart, loyal and remarkably tough for a normal human) hardly seems the forgiving type. Even Yukio seemed shocked by what he saw. And what will Shiemi make of all this? I fear dark and painful times may be ahead for our hero.
It’s interesting to muse on the meaning of this episode’s title, “Act of Kindness”. And on the identity of the new face in the preview, and the meaning of the cracks in Rin’s blade. The intriguing line of the episode for me came from Mephistopheles: “Compared to demons who always seek pleasure in denial, the moderate ways of humans are easy to corrupt. So which way are you taking?” I’m not sure I grasp all the permutations of that – I’m not sure we’re supposed to just yet – but I suspect it’s a key question that will hang over the rest of this series.
Preview
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That was awesome. I love those shocking moments when the main character’s secret is finally revealed. Most anime just hide it forever.
Those things are pretty much the moments every reader/watcher wants xD The mangaka/creators just enjoy trolling us for a bit until the show us that moment. I’m personally happy they did it early in this anime/manga xD.
They should give and teach about guns and swords to all exorcists, because it’s clear that some classes are pretty useless in a regular combat situation (they can act as back up, but they can’t really fight, which is just lame).
Support is just as important as actual combat expertise though. They mostly fight demons anyway.
The only person that hasn’t significantly contributed to the fights on screen is Izumo.
Amaimon and Okamura are both demons, just higher level than those we’ve seen the other exorcists face so far.
I think that normally they’re in a group so that teamwork covers these obvious flaws in fighting styles.
My bad. I meant to say that they are trained to normally fight lesser demons AND that they are esquires. You’d have to make an exception for when they fight demon princes right? =O
Refer to episode 2 for some ‘professional’ healing/summoning/shotgunning
We haven’t seen most of their classes. They did the summoning aptitude test and we could assume that they have had some similar for the other classes. It wouldn’t make sense for them to have a test for being let out into the field before they have had any classes about anything.
Looks like some Ono Daisuke fun next week~ 😀
Quick question:: Rin destroyed Mephisto’s Cuckoo Clock… does this mean Amaimon is done with for now?? Or perhaps Mephisto “transported” him or w/e back to Gehenna??
Show Spoiler ▼
Actually, in the manga,
Show Spoiler ▼
Not necessarily an anime only ending, it might be a filler arc so they don’t have to end this season in the middle of an arc.
Yeah, I agree with znail. This seems more likely to be the case
I don’t agree as either could be a possibility.
I am hoping for them to stick to the manga though, if it means they need to add a filler arc then I’d wrather them do that.
Show Spoiler ▼
I loved this episode was the best in the series so far. Though it was a bit different in the manga from a few parts it was still awesome. still can’t for the introduction of Show Spoiler ▼
To be quite honest i think that guy is a major douche-bag. Just Saiyan.
Awesome episode. That’s how Ao no Futsumashi is supposed to be.
Not some beach nonsense filler episode. lol.
Holy cow this episode just kicked this series into overdrive.
Best episode so for, cant stop re-watching the fighting scene.
Looking forward for the next episode but im getting a little worried.. it’s obvious there isnt enough material on the manga to do a 24 eps series without putting fillers or being too slow paced. From my experience, when an anime enters the original ending track, the animation quality drops a lot.
Although… what I’m hoping for is that this filler part is actually a set for a second season maybe? Either way, i’m not saying original ending is a bad thing XD this show is so awesome i know it will pull it off.
Besides the Beach filler, (seriously were they half-asleep when they did that ep?!) the anime-filled parts were pretty descent. The changes were good and seemed canon, so if they were to have an anime-original ending, I won’t be too worried, but it would still be cool to see the Kyoto arc animated…But based on the previews, that’s most likely not happening.
As for the trolls, >:D Who’s willing to say it’s boring NOW? 😛
It felt that the fight between Rin and Amaimon was a tad short. I think if they didn’t have the refresher part that took those 3 mins away; we would of had more.
I hope all the people who dropped this series see reason to pick it back up. I’d really like to see future seasons
I’ve read quite a bit further in the manga, so I somewhat know what’s coming, but I wonder whether it will continue following the manga or whether we will see an original ending. Or perhaps some filler material and then a second season that follows the manga…
This part of Ao no Exorcist was so much more amazing animated – the action was incredible.
Too bad I hate the part that immediately follows what happens in this episode… it’s where Shiemi really started to get on my nerves.
Extended previous episode summaries already? Wow.
Sadly, ever since I spoiled myself with the manga (around about ep 5), this show has lost a lot of its appeal to me. Lately, I’ve just been skimming through each ep.
This is the second time in a period of days I’ve seen someone in an anime get a parasitic insect larvae cut out of their necks. Should check my own neck just in case.
I was a little pissed when i checked the manga and they changed that last part of the fight related to mephisto. In the anime it seems he is worse than he actually is, because mephisto tries to stop the figth and in this ep they changed. Srsly, and the whole sword breaking wtf?
How many more episodes are there in this series? There is so much unexplained and I’d be pretty upset if he was just suddenly got ready along with everybody else to kill Saten. I’d seriously like some solid character, and plot development before the series ends. I may love this series, but the story arcs just aren’t focused enough for a series with a limited time.
This episode was absolutely intense. Loved the fight between the two, though I was a bit disappointed by how Rin, who has next to no training, beat Amaimon, a demon lord. It was still rather impressive and I hope that seeing Rin’s flames has a long lasting impact on everyone who’s seen it, as opposed to some series where everyone easily accepts that the protagonist has an amazingly dangerous power.
I suppose that at this point, I’m the only one who still thinks Mephisto is a good guy at heart. I mean, Shiro trusted him for heavens sake! It’d be weird for someone as spectacular as Shiro to have such poor judgement.
Well, I think he could be a good guy. Let’s say I haven’t conclusively decided one way or the other.
Direct to bankai without shikai…oh wait, wrong series.
Anyhow, looks like a great episode. I was unimpressed with the first two episodes (especially the part where Rin was fighting with Yukio- pointless and corny) but the series has really picked up.
SO was this ssj demon mode? because didnt he get owned last time, he still went crazy?
This was the best episode yet! The fight was done really well and Rin really surprised me at the end when he sliced open the cuckoo clock and looked out of control…
The whole episode seemed like it was over in no time since the episode really picked up after wasting 3.5 minutes in recap.
I expected it to be a great episode since I do read the manga and the next few will also be great, I cannot wait to see how it turns out animated and to see what is to happen again. Poor Rin.
I like this anime and I enjoy it very much. So I decided not to read the manga..most of the time will be disappoint of the anime if u compare with manga.
This episode provided great entertainment to me. Amaimon’s attack makes everyone from the camp face a new challenge, one at a whole different level, which will definitely affect their progress, maybe even adding them to “Rin’s world” from now on. Well, that of course ,
ifafter they will get over the part of Rin being a demon.all i want is for there to be more episodes of this anime now for question time
dose anyone know the song in the begining part of the show not the intro the recap section if you do please help me its stuck in my head and it wont come out!!!!!